Mar 23, 2015

NitroShare 0.3.0: Easily Send Files To Other Machines On The Local Network

NitroShare is a tool that can be used to easily transfer files between computers on your local network, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

NitroShare features:

no configuration required: each device running NitroShare broadcasts its presence to other devices on the network;

supports transferring files as well as directories;

displays desktop notifications for completed transfers or when someone on the local network starts or quits NitroShare;

simple, easy to use user interface.

NitroShare is very easy to use: simply select "Send Files..." or "Send Directory..." from the AppIndicator / tray icon menu, select the files and you get a list of devices that run NitroShare on your local network:

After selecting the files and the device you want to share them with, click "Ok" and the file transfer should begin.

NitroShare Settings and Transfers

From the NitroShare settings, you can set the device name, default downloads directory as well as some advanced settings that you shouldn't change unless you really need it, which include setting the transfer port and buffer as well as the broadcast port, timeout and interval.

NitroShare 0.3.0 was released over the weekend and it includes quite a few changes, the most important being that the app was almost completely rewritten in order to better organize the code and improve performance. Also, NitroShare is now using Qt 5.

Another interesting change is the implementation of a new simplified discovery process - the configuration wizard was removed and the user doesn't have to do anything after installing NitroShare to get it to work -, just start the app on each device and you can start transferring files. NitroShare can even add an exception to the Windows Firewall or UFW if necessary.

And finally, the last improvement in this release is the removal of file size limitations: you can now transfer files of any size.

Unfortunately, some features were removed in this release: NitroShare no longer ships with Nautilus integration and the "share boxes" (widgets that could be used to drag and drop files to share them between computers on your local network) feature was removed. However, according to the release announcement, the "share boxes" feature might return with the next NitroShare version.

Download NitroShare

Download NitroShare (binaries available for Ubuntu 14.04, 14.10 or 15.04, Windows and Mac OS X as well as the source)

Optional: Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10 or 14.04 (and derivatives) users can install NitroShare by using its official PPA: